The Silent child

[Puffycat]

I’ve just watched this award winning short film and am in bits!
My DH said ‘oh you’ll enjoy it, it’s uplifting ‘
Uplifting my arse!
I’m so cross at the stupid parents. Surely the first thing you do when you have a deaf child is learn sign language!
The bit at the end when Libby signs ‘I love you’ to her therapist finished me off!
I just hope it raised awareness

ohreally I agree. I think the misconception that hearing aids/cochlear implants 'cure' the deafness may have been big part of the closing of Deaf schools.

@UpstartCrow, yes some parents do move. We did. But not straight away. At diagnosis we were over 100miles from the closest deaf school. I also know parents who have moved over 250 miles for a suitable deaf school. And children that board from the age of 5 because parents can't afford to move, and there is not suitable provision locally.

I have a deaf child, who has a CI and also signs. I loved the film, but the thing that annoyed me is that you just don't get a specialist deaf social worker round your house to teach your child sign! We are spending a fortune learning to sign (dh & i), and teaching a child a language that you are learning yourself can be difficult. I'm a huge advocate of deaf children learning bsl, but the financial and practical implications to families can be massive. Plus, a lot of professions still do discourage signing. We've been told not to sign by the ci speech therapy team. Obviously we did not take that advice, and my daughter's speech is not suffering as a result, but it can be difficult when professionals are telling you that sign will detriment their speech. Raising and educating deaf children is a hugely controversial minefield basically!

My daughter who is profoundly deaf was born into a hearing family, I spent 5 years learning how to sign on part time courses, twice whilst heavily pregnant and having 3rd child half way through. We sat and watched it as a family, my daughter really enjoyed it but she thinks I'm a bit crazy for crying....

I agree that they wouldn't let a child go to mainstream without support, my daughter had full time support in mainstream from nursery, she attends a school for the deaf now.

This was filmed very locally to me and I have been to the school it was filmed at a few times for sporting events, lovely to see local people doing well.

Also just to add when my daughter got her cochlear implant at 6 we were told not to sign anymore with her, we ignored the advice and continued to use speech and sign!

skylander sounds like you have done a lot to help your daughter and glad that her experience does not mirror that of the film!

Not uplifting but pretty awesome, I was in tears. The stats at the end were bonkers, think it was 78% of deaf kids have no additional support in school. Bonkers.

This is probably an unanswerable question, but why on earth is BSL not taught as a language option in schools?

I am really thankful that Rachel shenton made this film, but...

I am a parent of a partially deaf child and feel really upset at the portrayal of parents on the film and a little of the attitude here.

Learning bsl takes a long time and is hard. I went through bsl level one when my child was 2.5 years old as he wasn't interested in communicating. Once he started bsl in part, he wanted to communicate and started to talk but still now is delayed in speech.

What I felt wasn't picked up in the film is the fact that the parents were portrayed as not being bothered or being 'too good' for sign language. Like everyone sees how the child is struggling but the parents are blind to it. Reality is pretty much opposite.

You explain to people that your child can't hear and they act as though you're hamming it up because they have a hearing aid. Speech therapy don't turn up, teachers of the deaf come in once a term and they don't offer help - you ask and they tell you it's fine because they dont have capacity to do it. Bsl is extortionately expensive to learn officially. I made the decision to remortgage my home to send my child to private school wheŕ at least he can have a chance to hear with a class vastly less than the usual 30 kids. I worked on his confidence harder than anyone else had to hand he avoided joining in, I gave up work while until he was in school? I did home speech therapy with him ay home, i learned songs in bsl, and I did everything including making accessories to make him feel good about having hearing aids and had to spend almost £2000 on an Fm system for school because the government won't provide one. Teachers, speech therapists, teachers of the deaf and friends and family don't get it - they mostly just tell me my efforts for extra support are due to me being an anxious mother and by thw way, schools view hearing as being solved by hearing aids so no extra support is given.

One side of the scale I get to be a drama queen mother and on the other scale, the movie left me feeling like the world thinks I'm a s**@t* bag.

JamPasty Fri 30-Mar-18 23:02:34

This is probably an unanswerable question, but why on earth is BSL not taught as a language option in schools?

Where are the teachers to teach it?

I guess there must be some teachers because people are being taught, just not on shcools. All I'm saying is what a missed opportunity

Rachel Shenton was a star in a show that myself and DD were obsessed with, Switched at Birth. There were deaf characters on there and I learnt so much from the show. Not all deaf people want to be 'fixed' by having a cochlear implant for, one. Not all want to be able to speak.

Some believe signing can delay speech. Some do not believe that. I do not know enough to make a judgement.

DD wants to learn sign language, and has made a great start by learning the alphabet.

I guess there must be some teachers because people are being taught, just not on shcools. All I'm saying is what a missed opportunity

But in order to teach in schools you have to be a qualified teacher. Deaf people, due largely to the lack of support and access to the curriculum, typically leave school with far lower examination results than their hearing peers - particularly in English.

You need to a certain level of English to be accepted onto teacher training programmes. So there are very few qualified teachers who are Deaf.

Most Teachers of the Deaf are hearing. The minimum requirement for BSL to become a Teacher of the Deaf is level 2 BSL. This is conversational (if that).

One doesn't have to be a qualified teacher to deliver BSL courses at college. Colleges, local councils and private BSL teaching organisations is where most Deaf BSL tutors end up working, not in primary or secondary education.

There were deaf characters on there and I learnt so much from the show.

Unless you live in the US, I hope you don't mean you were learning the signs.

Pp who posted before what do you mean bsl and not signed English? Are they not the same thing?

£10,000 to learn it?! I thought it was easy cheaper. I thought I'd seen a course locally at £100 or something (can't remember exactly price may be more)

But I didn't think about the price and that is a good point and I can imagine it would be very hard to learn it and keep it going. Some of the things discussed here are really interesting

i saw it as the parents didn't want their child to look "different"
they needed support to accept that difference.
i loved it and just hope it will get sign language taught in schools.

How on earth would you not know your child is profoundly deaf until the age of 3.5? My daughters had hearing tests before then!

Pp who posted before what do you mean bsl and not signed English? Are they not the same thing?

No, BSL has a unique grammar and syntax that is totally distinct to English. It's not a case of meeting a deaf person and simply signing "WHAT-IS-YOUR-NAME?" in that word order. The word order in BSL would be "NAME-YOU-WHAT?" It's a topic prominent language.

As to the cost, I'm talking about the price of learning the language from level 1 to level 6. If I wanted to go on and do the interpreting level qualification, that would be an additional £6,000 (min), either to do a NVQ in interpreting or pursue the postgraduate route.

Obviously, there is no need for parents of Deaf kids to pursue an interpreting degree, but to get to a decent level of signing i.e., level 3/4/6, that is going to be time intensive and expensive.

Oh I see what you mean about the grammar.

I think it would be great if it would be taught in schools yes.

I’v been following this closely and feel my original comments were a little trite.
It’s been fascinating to read posts from those of you that have/and are dealing with this.
I was, of course, remarking on a film not real life.
I loved the suggestion that bsl be taught in schools. That would be a brilliant move.
When your dc start their gcse course and HAVE to do a modern language, wouldn’t it be great if they could chose bsl?
My dd would have jumped at the chance!

@Bettyfood,
I think the statistics are something like 5-10% of profoundly deaf children "pass" the newborn screening.
It's not a fail safe, same as cancer screenings don't pick up every case, it's a screening tool that picks up more cases than not having it, but it doesn't get them all.

The mum in the film also said that there was some level of hearing in one ear that was over compensating. Which would suggest that the newborn screening test would have been "passed" because the test would have registered a response.

I thought I'd seen a course locally at £100 or something (can't remember exactly price may be more)

Yes, cheap courses, couple of hours a week for a couple of terms, learning enough signs to pass an exam. Not necessarily learning words and grammar needed to manage learning in school, or dealing with health professionals, or managing in a situation where you have been arrested, for example. Fluency takes time - most people who speak a second language do so because of a period of immersion in that language. It is very difficult to immerse yourself in BSL because there are so few speakers in the first place and a once a week lesson plus a couple of hours socialising at the local Deaf club is a million miles from genuine immersion.

Implants don't cure deafness. Results of implants vary greatly.
Implants are generally pushed onto parents and alot of teacher of deaf push those and not BSL. At one time to become TOD they needed level 3 in BSL now they only need to start working towards a level 1

Schools will try to work round support by not getting a high level support or if child ir oral using BSL because the parents have been advised against using sign then then the child doesn't need support as they lip read (they do need support in reality they don't get adequate support)

This is probably an unanswerable question, but why on earth is BSL not taught as a language option in schools?

@JamPasty

Parliament has been repeatedly petitioned and
It was recently debated in parliament. Link here to British Deaf News coverage.

Despite a "pilot GCSE for BSL already been trialled, it was announced, but did not receive the go-ahead from the Department of Education (DfE). The issue is that only awarding organisations (i.e. the exam boards) accredited by Ofqual can determine what can and can’t be a GCSE."

"But now is apparently the time for ‘stability,’ meaning BSL shouldn’t be taught on the National Curriculum and be a GCSE any time soon."

How on earth would you not know your child is profoundly deaf until the age of 3.5? My daughters had hearing tests before then!

My ds has bad glue ear. It was picked up by multiple ear infections, but until he had a reliable hearing test aged about 3.6yo I was no aware of how little he could hear. He had grommets from 18months -2.6years approximately though.
Children adapt very well. One thing, ds did when he was small was he used to want to be picked up and then would tap my cheek when he wanted to speak to me. I thought it was an adorable quirk that he did because he had two big sisters and wanted to make sure he got the attention. He stopped doing it around 2yo, and then started again, but I didn't really think anything of it.
I was at ENT when he did it at 3.6yo and they pointed out he was turning my face so he could lip read. He also taught himself to read using subtitles on films-I just thought he liked playing with the controls.
He could hear on and off, but this is just an example of how children can hide it.

Also for not noticing, I have a cousin who lost their hearing at 2yo very suddenly. They found out it was a genetic condition when his sister did the same. For him, they took a bit of time to pick it up as he'd clearly been able to hear, so wasn't concerned about it. With the sister it was picked up much quicker. Both can hear with hearing aids.

I thought it was brilliant - I’ve got severe hearing loss - but was annoyed at primary one kids doing spelling tests in like week one!